[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12523]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          MEDICARE ANNIVERSARY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Connecticut (Mr. Courtney) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, 48 years ago today, Lyndon Johnson, in 
Independence, Missouri, signed into law the Medicare program in the 
presence of former President Harry S Truman.
  It's important when you think about that event, which I would argue 
transformed our country, to go back in time and remember that seniors 
in 1965, only half had health insurance of any sort; 30 percent of 
America's seniors lived in poverty; and life expectancy for America's 
seniors was age 70. If you fast toward today, 48 years later, we have 
universal health insurance coverage for all seniors, life expectancy is 
now age 79, and only 7 percent of seniors live below the poverty line.
  The decision by Congress earlier that year--it was April of 1965 when 
our colleague, Congressman John Dingell, was sitting in the Speaker's 
Chair and brought the gavel down when the Medicare law was passed--has, 
again, paid off huge dividends in terms of transforming America's 
health care system.
  Back then, Medicare only covered doctor visits and hospital visits. 
Today, it covers a broad range of services for seniors--dialysis, 
medical equipment, outpatient services, such as prescription drug 
coverage--and as a result, the health care sector of our country has 
grown. For many, it has created literally careers and opportunities to 
pursue a system which, again, has produced great results for the folks 
who live in our country over age 65 and people on disability.
  Today, we have challenges that Medicare faces, but there is good 
news. The Trustees for Medicare recently issued their annual report, 
and it showed that the solvency of the Medicare trust fund this year 
was extended out an additional 2 years to 2026. And beyond that date, 
Medicare does not go bankrupt to zero. There is a shortfall, in terms 
of the projections by the Trustees, of roughly about 10 percent--a 
serious problem, but one that we can manage using smart changes to the 
system. And the Trustees, in their reports, pointed to the Affordable 
Care Act, when it was signed into law by President Obama in 2010, as 
extending by 9 years the solvency of the Medicare system.
  For seniors, under the Affordable Care Act, they are now getting more 
help with prescription drug assistance. They were stranded in the 
doughnut hole prior to 2010. Now they get over half of the cost of 
those prescription drugs while they're in the doughnut hole discounted. 
They are also getting free preventive care services--whether it's 
colonoscopies, annual checkups, smoking cessation programs. All of 
those essential services for primary care now carry no out-of-pocket 
costs because of the Affordable Care Act.
  The fact is that those changes have extended the solvency of the 
Affordable Care Act. We have not cut benefits for seniors. We have not 
made unwise choices, such as the Ryan budget, which proposed raising 
the eligibility age for seniors to qualify for Medicare to age 67 and 
would butcher the program into private health insurance for people 
under age 55, in other words, turning the clock back to where we were 
48 years ago when President Johnson signed that measure into law.
  The best way to celebrate Medicare's birthday--which, again, has 
transformed the lives of every American family since it was enacted in 
1965--is to make smart changes to the system, to build on the progress 
of the Affordable Care Act, to make sure that it's going to be there 
for our children and our grandchildren, just like the people who had 
the wisdom to vote for that program 48 years ago and signed it into 
law--again, with the vision and prophesy of Harry S Truman, who, as a 
Senator representing the State of Missouri, had proposed Medicare as a 
law and then saw, before his time on Earth ended, it actually come to 
fruition.

                              {time}  1215

  Medicare is a wonderful program. It is a program which every family 
is touched by and has experienced and benefited from. Our best way to 
celebrate its birthday today is to redouble our efforts to extend its 
solvency and to make sure that all American families, today and in the 
future, are able to enjoy its wonderful benefits.

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